I’ve been comfortable for way too long. Please, forgive me. I know that God wants to use me to show God in this world. We all love to be comfortable and content in our lives, church, and our surroundings. Currently, our local Wal-Mart is renovating and moving everything around the store. This has caused an uproar in the community people are talking about it everywhere and people are really upset. I have to admit the changes did not sit well with me either. But this made me think of our Christian lives. Should we be content to be comfortable?
Every week on Sunday night we go around the room checking for prayer requests. Here’s what I’ve noticed, and this is just based on observation, every week there are many prayer requests, and we love it. We love to pray over your prayer requests, but here’s what I’ve noticed quite honestly, and this is just from observation, that most of the time what people apparently want prayers for are things that directly impact them or those that they love. It’s, Pray for my grandma, Pray that I get into this school. Pray for me find a job. Absolutely and completely we should continue to pray those prayers; but instead of just praying, “God, would you do this for me?” a dangerous way to pray is, “God, what can I do for you?” Not just, “God, hey. Do this, bless me, keep me safe,” but, “God, I am your servant and I want to be available for whatever you might call me to do.” I call it a prayer of availability.
Let me tell you, when you pray this prayer, God could direct you in a lot of different ways. He may lead you to go to a different city. He may reveal a calling in your life that you never ever expected before. He may lead you to stay somewhere when you just knew you were supposed to go somewhere else. He may move you to break up with somebody and he give you an upgrade. He might lead you to a different job. He might call you to serve somewhere. He might move you from being a cat person to a dog person. I don’t know what it would be, but when you make yourself available to God it’s an incredibly dangerous prayer we’re going to learn to pray today.
Now, all throughout scripture if you read from the Old Testament through the New, you’re going to see that God calls people. What does that mean? It doesn’t mean your phone rings, it means He speaks to people, He prompts them, He moves them, He leads them to say something, to do something, to go somewhere, to encourage someone, to speak truth. God will call those who know him to do something that he wants done. There are different responses to God’s call. I want to talk about those three responses that will lead us to our dangerous prayer.
Three responses to God’s call: The first one, if you’re taking notes, is this. It was Jonah. Jonah responded to God’s call this way. He said, “Here I am, I’m not going!” Some of you can relate. “Here I am God. I’m not going.” Jonah chapter 1 verses 1 through 3, “God spoke and said, ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me.'” What did Jonah do? Jonah ran away from the Lord. He said, “Here I am God. I’m not going.” I wonder how many of you have had a similar experience. You’ve felt prompted to do something. “Hey, I’m supposed to reach out. I’m supposed to say something. I’m supposed to help this person. Here I am God. Not today. I’m not going.”
In fact, to me, I am still haunted by a time that I felt prompted to do something. It wasn’t a big thing, but it was a significant miss, I believe, on my part. I was simply driving home and I drove … To get to my house you have to go through places where there’s a couple of miles with no houses. There’s just nothing. There was a lady that must have been 75/78 years of age standing on the side of the road, no vehicle, just standing there. I thought, “I’m supposed to stop.” I don’t know if that was God prompting me to stop. I don’t know if it was just human decency or whatever, but I just thought, “I’m supposed to stop. She’s there. Why in the world would a woman be standing on the side of the road?”
I just drove up to her thinking, “I need to stop. I need to stop. I need to stop,” and I’m embarrassed to say I just kept on driving by. I thought I needed to stop and I didn’t even do it. I just drove all the way home and didn’t even stop to say, “Hey, can I help you? What’s going on?” To this day, I feel bad about that. I felt prompted to do something and I didn’t do it. I can guarantee you that all of you who are followers of Jesus, there are those times that God prompts you to do something and you think, “I need to. I’m going to. I should. Here I am though, not today. I’m not going to do this.” Jonah, “Here I am,” say it with me, “I’m not going.”
The second one is Moses, and this is what Moses said. He said, “Here I am. Send someone else. Here I am. Send my brother. This isn’t my perfect calling.” Verse 10 of Exodus chapter 3, “God spoke and said, ‘Now go. I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.'” This is something Moses would have agreed needed to happen, but instead of saying, “Sure God, I’ll go,” Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Who am I? I’m not good enough. I’m not talented enough. Someone else would be better at this than I am. Here I am, God. Send someone else. I’m not the right person.”
It’s so easy for us to do this. “I’m not going to give. They should give. They’ve got more money to give. I’m not going to go. I don’t have as much time. She’s a stay at home mom. She’s got more time than I do.” All the stay at home moms came out with a knife with no makeup on and their hair messed up saying, “You have no idea.” Girl I am with you I’m a stay at home mom and my son went to school at home from 6th grade to 10th grade I feel your pain. That’s what we all think. “She can do it. He can do it. They’re better equipped. I don’t have time for this. Here I am God. Send someone else.”
Jonah says, “Here I am. I’m not going.” Moses says, “Here I am. Send somebody else.” Isaiah though prays a very dangerous prayer. This is the prayer that I want us to pray today. Isaiah chapter 6 verse 8 says this: Isaiah says, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?'” Notice what Isaiah said in a prayer response back to God. Before you read it I want you to notice what he did not say. Notice he didn’t say, “Where are you sending me? Is the climate nice? What’s the cost of living there? What is the pay range? Are there benefits? How much vacation do I get?” Right? He didn’t ask for any of that. What he simply did, essentially, is signed a contract that was blank and said to God, “Here I am,” somebody say it aloud, “send me. Here I am God. Send me.” This is, I don’t need to tell you, a really dangerous prayer.
I want to encourage you when you wake up, pray our own version of this prayer every day, “God, I give you my mind. I give you my eyes. I give you my mouth. May I speak what you want me to say. May I hear only your truth today and have the wisdom to reject that which is not true. Here are my hands. May they used to be to build your kingdom. Here are my feet God. Lead me to where you want me to go. Help me to do what you want me to do. Essentially God, here I am. Send me.”
I want to challenge you, dare you, motivate you to pray a similar prayer. “Here I am God. I’m available. Here I am God. You have permission to interrupt me. God, if you want me to go somewhere, I’ll go. If you want me to stay, I’ll stay. If you want me to say something to somebody, I’ll speak. If you want me simply to be quiet and pray, I will pray. If you want me to give something away, if you want me to use my time, whatever you need me to do, wherever it is God, here I am. I am completely available to you God. I am your servant. Here I am God. Send me.” An incredibly dangerous prayer, because when you start praying that I guarantee you God’s going to interrupt you, God will prompt you, God will move upon you, and suddenly you’ll recognize God has a lot for you to do when you pray, “Here I am. Send me.”
How do we get there? How do we get to that kind of attitude before God? How do we fully surrender our lives to God? I want to try to answer that. We looked at Isaiah 6:8. I want to look at the verses that lead up to that surrendered prayer from the prophet Isaiah. What do you need to fully surrender to God? Three things, if you’re taking notes I hope you’ll write these things down.
Number one, you need a genuine experience with the presence of God. Verse 1 says this: “In the year the King Uzziah died, he said, ‘I,'” what?. He said, “I saw the Lord high an exalted seated on a throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple.”
What happened? Isaiah saw the presence of God. He saw him in all of his majesty and all of his glory. The text goes on to talk about these angelic beings named seraphim, and all of these angelic beings were worshiping and praising the living God crying out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.” When Isaiah saw the presence of God, when he experienced the glory of God, it completely transformed who he was. Why is it that you might not be very available to God? Perhaps it’s because you have not recently experienced the presence of God. Let me say that again. Why is it that you may not find yourself being available? “God here I am. Use me.” Perhaps it’s because you have not recently experienced the presence of God.
Why is it that maybe you’re not as available to God as you should be? Maybe it’s because you haven’t sought after him in awhile, because when you experience his presence you will be transformed. “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord high and lifted up. His glory was everywhere.” What do you need to fully surrender to God? You need a genuine experience with the presence of God.
The second thing you need is a genuine awareness of your sinfulness, a genuine awareness of your sinfulness.
In fact, I’m going to argue that one of the biggest cultural lies that people believe today is this: “I’m a good person. You’re a good person. She’s a good person. We’re good people. I’m a good person.” Let me tell you this, without Christ you are not a good person. You are a horrible, pathetic, evil sinner in the eyes of God. I’m not here to make you feel better about yourself. You’re wicked. I’m wicked. We’re evil. We’re sinners. We’re despicable in the eyes of God. It was when Isaiah saw the goodness of God he realized the badness of him. I recognize that’s not the right way to say it, but that’s the way I wanted to say it because it felt right when it was coming out. He saw how holy God was, and in that moment he recognized his own unrighteousness. It was a genuine awareness of his sinfulness.
In verse 5 he cries out, “Woe to me!” He cried, “I’m ruined.” Another verse says, “I’m done. I’m nothing. I’m pathetic. I’m a sinner. I have nothing to offer. He’s holy. I’m not. He’s righteous. I’m unrighteous. He’s full of glory. I’m full of sin. Woe to me. I’m ruined, for I’m a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” What does it take to get to a place where you’re fully surrendered? “Here I am God. I’m yours. Send me.” It takes a genuine experience with the presence of God. It takes a genuine awareness of your sinfulness.
Number three, it takes a genuine understanding of God’s grace.
When you understand just how amazing his grace is, it brings you to a point of full surrender. Verse 6 says this: “Isaiah said, ‘Then one of the Seraphim,'” that’s one of those angelic beings, “‘flew to me with a live coal in his hand which he had taken from the tongs from the alter. When he touched it to my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips,'” then read aloud what he said, he said, this is amazing news and this is the grace, “he said, ‘Your guilt is taken away and your sins atoned for.'” What happened? He saw the presence of God. He recognized, “I am ruined. I am a man of unclean lips.”
With one touch from the goodness of God, his sins were forgiven and completely atoned for. You can only imagine this. Your lying lips, forgiven. Your lustful attitudes, forgiven. Your self-centered thoughts, forgiven. Your anger outbursts, forgiven. Every secret sin you’ve never told anybody before, but God knows them all, forgiven as if they never ever happened. God separates your sins as far as the east is from the west. He does not remember your sins anymore. When you confess your sins to God, he is faithful and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
When you understand the grace of God, it transforms everything. The same way that coal that touched his lips removed his guilt, the blood of Jesus covers our sins. When we recognize that we don’t bring anything, but Jesus brings everything … Let me say it again. We don’t bring anything and Jesus brings everything. When we sense God’s presence, when we’re aware of our own sinfulness, and then we experience the unmatched, undeserved grace of God through Jesus Christ, our only reasonable response, everything, “Here I am God. Send me. It’s not my life. It’s not my desires.” One of the most dangerous prayers you can pray, “God I’m all yours anywhere, anytime, anything.”
This isn’t some kind of, “Gosh, I’ve got to pray this prayer because the Jesus died for my sins thing. Shoot.” This is, “I get to do this!” This is, “I get to serve him!” This is, “I get to wake up. I have a day that God has made. He has given me gifts. He put me at this moment in history because at this time I can best bring glory to him. He’s going to bring people across my path today that need encouragement, and I have encouragement from the Lord inside of me. He’s going to have people that have needs, and he’s given me exactly what they need. If I just have the courage to release it and trust God to use it, he can use me to meet some needs.” This isn’t a, “Oh I’ve got to serve God.” This is a, “I get to serve God because he served and loved me through Jesus! I get to give everything that I have to him.”
Here’s the cool thing: This isn’t a one time decision. This isn’t like, “In 2002 I prayed that prayer and I surrendered it all to him on that day, and ever since then …” No, it’s not a one time decision. It’s a daily decision. It’s a daily decision. The reasons it’s daily is because if you have been born into God’s family, in other words if you have called on Jesus and been transformed, here’s what happened, your spirit came to life. From that moment on, there is a war going on inside of you. There is a war because there is a flesh side of you, is what the Bible calls, it’s not your skin, it means your own selfish desires, and there is a spirit side of you. Your flesh is at war with your spirit. Your flesh wants to do what you want to do. “Here I am. I’m not going! Here I am. Send somebody else.” Your spirit wants to do what God wants you to do. “Here I am God. Send me.”
How do we learn to daily choose to die to our flesh so our spirit would live? It’s simple. What we feed grows and what we starve dies. It’s that simple. If we feed our flesh, “Give me, give me, give me, give me, give me. It’s all about me, me, me, me, me. I’m not going to do that. My life is too important. I’m too valuable. I don’t have time to make a difference. Somebody else can do that. I love Jesus and everything, and I’m going to heaven, but I’m not going to do anything about it.” That’s feeding the flesh.
Instead, if you deny your flesh and feed your spirit, “I’m in the presence of God. I’m seeking God. I’m in his word. I’m growing spiritually. I’m in a Life Group where I’m connecting with others in Biblical community. We’re sharpening one another. I’m using my spiritual gifts. I’m in the church. I am the church. I am the church in the world. I’m showing love,” then your spirit is growing, and your flesh is dying, and you’re closer to God, and you recognize him. “I’m available, and because I’m available, God’s asked me to do more. Whoever is faithful with little God will trust with much.” Why is he trusting some people with much? They were faithful with a little and he gave them more.
That’s why the apostle Paul said this: He said, “I die daily.” What does that mean? Like, “Pow! I die daily.” No, it doesn’t mean that. It means that I am dying to myself every single day so that Christ will live through me. He said, “I am crucified with Christ, but nevertheless I live.” He said, “It’s no longer I who lives now. It’s Christ who lives in me.” That’s the point to which we grow whenever we experience the presence of God, when we’re aware of our own sinfulness and when we experience the glory of a God who forgives us and we didn’t deserve it. Then our response is, “Yes, I’m in! Please use me! I want to be your hands and I want to be your feet. I want to show the same love that you’ve shown to me all over the world. Here I am God. Send me.”
Why is it that more Jesus followers don’t pray this prayer? It could be because they haven’t thought of it maybe. I’m thinking it’s probably because they’re afraid because it really is a dangerous prayer. “Revive me,” dangerous. “Search me,” dangerous. “Send me,” dangerous. My theory is, I can’t prove this, but just from talking to people, I think many people are afraid that God is going to make you sell everything and go be a missionary in Africa, and never use a real toilet again as long as you live. What you need to know is that may happen. He may call you to be a missionary in Africa.
It’s more likely though he’s going to call you to be a missionary where you work because that’s holy too. It’s more likely that he’s going to call you to serve the people that are in front of you, to be faithful with what he’s already given you. A lot of times people go, “God’s going to call on me to la, la, big, big, big, big, big, big, big.!” A lot of times God calls you to stop and listen to someone who’s hurting. God, a lot of times, will call you to just reach out and give something to someone who’s in need. God may call you to buy lunch for $8 for a single mom with four kids, and you may say, “That wasn’t a really big thing,” and she would say, “No, that really was a big thing,” and God would say, “That was a big thing because you were faithful and obedient to me.”
When you do enough little things and are faithful to God, you may wake up one day and realize that the little things were actually the big things because you’ve been faithful to God day after day, day after day, day after day; and when you’ve been faithful in the small things, he trusts you with even more big things. One day you’re excited. “God, I will go wherever you want me to go.” He may prompt you to serve somewhere in the church. He may prompt you to serve in the nursery, which is like going to Africa because they don’t go in toilets either. He may call you to lead a Sunday school class. He may prompt you to foster. He may prompt you to give above your tithe. I don’t know what he’s going to prompt you to do, but when you truly start saying yes to Jesus, you’re going to recognize he’s calling you to do more, and more, and more because you are his hands and you are his feet in the world. “Here I am. Send me. Here I am. Send me. Here I am God. I’m yours anywhere, anytime.”